Vermont at Binghamton 1/9/21

Vermont 76 Binghamton 60

Now that's more like it! 

Vermont put together a full forty minutes and dominated Binghamton in the first game of the weekend series. The first half featured a surgical offensive performance where the Cats committed zero turnovers. Vermont avoided the mid second half letdown that has plagued them thus far this season en route to their most complete game of the season. Ryan Davis led the way once again, dominating inside with 25 points and 11 rebounds. He has established himself as the go to guy in the offense and has put himself firmly in the player of the year conversation. Quite an impressive ascension given the difficult offseason. Isaiah Powell continued his strong play chipping in 14 points and 5 rebounds. He is shooting the ball with confidence and doing the little things right. Stef Smith bounced back from a tough series against Albany with 16 points. With Davis's emergence, Smith can settle back into the role he is been in during his career as an explosive second scorer. Ben Shungu continues to provide the "winning plays" that every team needs, finishing with only 4 points but adding 6 rebounds and a career high 9 assists. He is so often in the right place at the right time and exudes calm leadership on the court. Becker made some nice adjustments in this game switching to a 1-3-1 zone when the second unit was in for the middle part of both halves. He knows the defense needs some tweaking with the makeup of guys that he has this season and it worked very well this afternoon. The Cats came in with a game plan to take away the three and they did a nice job of extending their defense. In the second half Justin Mazzulla was often guarding Binghamton sharpshooter Tyler Bertram 30 feet from the hoop. The Bearcats have consistently played much better in the second games of their weekend series so it will be important for Vermont to make adjustments and keep the energy up. I would expect the game to be much closer tomorrow but Vermont is going to be very motivated to get out there and complete their first sweep.